Back in April Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored the voting rights of 206,000 ex-offenders that had served their sentences and paid their debt to society. About 13,000 of those people registered to vote, but the Republican General Assembly sued the Governor and claimed the move was not only unconstitutional, but an opportunistic move to help his friend, Hillary Clinton. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that McAuliffe violated the constitution of Virginia and rescinded the voting rights of those 13,000 that foolishly thought society was really forgiving them.
That wasn’t going to stop Terry McAuliffe. This week the Governor completed individually reviewing each case and individually restoring the rights of each of those 13,000. The court ruled that McAuliffe didn’t have the right to restore the rights to a class, but he clearly has the right to restore those rights individually. I will not get into the history or racist reasons why Virginia is but one of a small minority of states that doesn’t restore the voting rights of felons without a lot of red tape, but let’s just say it is a left-over from the early 1900s, when any means of preventing African Americans from voting was implemented. This has all been discussed here quite thoroughly.
My friend, who I will not name, received this letter today and by the end of the day was registered again for the second time in just a month or two. She served her time and is a model citizen. She earns a good living helping people and should have been able to vote the day after her sentence was completed at the very least. I got a happy text message with a photograph of the letter a few hours ago and I am very happy for her and her husband. I am sharing that with you with her permission although I had to wipe any identifying information. Hopefully I have not screwed that up.
Here’s the part that may disturb some of you. This person is voting for Donald Trump. All I can say is that for me, this is one vote for Donald Trump that I will be happy to see cast. Probably the only one. Those who claim the governor is trying to gain unfair advantage would have him do what? Would they want him to delay the restoration of the rights until after the election? Then it would be fair huh? Would that be fair to all the souls who for over a century have been denied the most basic right we cherish? Just wait until another election passes and then you can have what you should have had for a century. No way. Now is what is appropriate. Thank you Terry McAuliffe.